


Among Thieves

by sparklyfaerie



Category: Lizzie Bennet Diaries
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-26
Updated: 2013-02-26
Packaged: 2017-12-03 17:02:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/700606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparklyfaerie/pseuds/sparklyfaerie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Caroline doesn’t like the way he looks at her. Elizabeth Bennet. Loud and blunt and completely without refinement. Really, her only redeeming quality is that she’s somewhat intelligent.</p>
<p>(Later, when Darcy becomes aware of the videos, Caroline will regret this and think of how her actions might colour his perception of her.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Among Thieves

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Normally I have an official-sounding disclaimer, but let's just be honest. It's 2:20am and I'm too tired to adapt it for LBD. I just don't own it, okay?
> 
> The title comes from the saying, "There is no honor among thieves" (inspired by Caroline and Darcy being described as "thick as thieves".

Caroline doesn’t like the way he looks at her.

_Elizabeth Bennet_. Loud and blunt and completely without refinement; and yet she’s caught Darcy studying her almost every time they’re in a room together. Personally, Caroline doesn’t see what’s so special about this girl. To her, she’s just another local in this backwater town that her brother seems to find so charming.

Really, her only redeeming quality is that she’s somewhat intelligent.

But Darcy stares and stares, like he’s never seen anything quite like her before. (Which Caroline doesn’t find hard to believe. Darcy has always seemed to overlook the female sex. Until now.) It set’s Caroline’s teeth on edge.

* * *

She’s _beneath_ him—this entire _place_ is beneath all three of them, and her brother refuses to see it. At least Darcy seems to find the place as contemptible as she does, even if certain members of the population have captured his attention.

‘Pretty’, he’d called her. Caroline doesn’t see it. Elizabeth’s face contorts into all sorts of strange and unflattering expressions, even when not recording her video blogs; her eyes are too small, she’s too pale and her hair is prone to limpness. Her clothing is nowhere near as flattering as it should be and her makeup is virtually nonexistent half the time.

(Caroline knows, without a doubt, that she surpasses Elizabeth Bennet in _all_ forms of beauty—but not once has William Darcy ever called Caroline Lee so much as ‘decent’.)

* * *

And since she and her sister had been invited to stay at Netherfield, Elizabeth has ultimately been thrust into the company of Darcy and Caroline while Bing and Jane make eyes at each other—something that, the two of them actually agree, is painful to endure.

(If she didn’t resent his attentions to her so much, Caroline could almost pity Darcy the fact that Elizabeth can barely stand to be in his company for five minutes at a time.)

But there have been moments when they seem almost… civil. Through watching her video blogs, Caroline has come to notice a lot of Elizabeth Bennet’s tells—and there are times when she is genuinely comfortable in Darcy’s company. Granted, they are rare; but there have been multiple instances in the last few weeks when they’d managed to have a good-natured debate about a novel (Caroline hadn’t read it, and was therefore the proverbial Odd Man Out), or one had made a joke that had amused the other, or simple morning greetings that were the very epitome of cordiality.

It makes her anxious.

* * *

They’re all meant to go on a wine-tasting excursion this afternoon. Had Jane still been ill, Bing and Darcy likely would have paired off, leaving the women to their own devices—not that Caroline would have appreciated that arrangement, but the thought of spending one more moment watching Darcy make eyes at this girl is enough to make Caroline want to rip out her perfect hair.

(Spending time in Elizabeth’s company is an evil she will happily endure if it means she can avoid seeing Darcy so smitten with someone who isn’t her.)

But now that Jane is well enough to leave her room and join them, Caroline knows that she will have to do something drastic. She knows Elizabeth hasn’t decided whether or not she will join them; she had told Caroline that she was looking forward to the outing itself, but did not want to spend it in Darcy’s company. And if she stays behind, Bing will attend to Jane, leaving Caroline and Darcy together—everyone wins.

Her plan is hastily forming as she hurries down to the guest room in which Elizabeth is quartered—she knows that she is filming right now, and she plans to use that to her advantage; her mind is already racing with lines to bait Elizabeth’s frustrations.

Pressing her ear to the door to hear what Elizabeth is saying to the camera, she almost smiles. Really, sometimes she just makes it too easy.

* * *

She knocks.

“Are you talking about Darcy?” She asks in a rush, knowing that she only has a limited amount of time to get Elizabeth angry enough to skip out on the outing.

“Who else?”

“Can I help?”

* * *

Later, when Darcy becomes aware of the videos, Caroline will regret this and think of how her actions might colour his perception of her. But for now, she happily encourages Elizabeth Bennet to unleash her dislike of Darcy at the camera once again.

After all, Darcy is above this girl.

And one day, she knows, he will see Caroline properly, and what, exactly, he means to her.


End file.
